Plastic fantastic - bringing space composites down to Earth

"Plastics and derived materials today play an important role in spacecraft – years of research and development go into creating new materials that can withstand the extreme conditions of hostile space environments on the way to Mars and other planets. Although developed for space, these new materials can often help to resolve problems on Earth," says Pierre Brisson, Head of ESA's Technology Transfer and Promotion (TTP) Office.

K2004 takes place in Düsseldorf from 20 to 27 October. ESA will be present throughout the eight days and can be found in Hall 6, at the stand of the Association of the Plastics Producing Industry in Germany (Verband Kunststofferzeugende Industrie e.V. - VKE). The stand will illustrate the theme 'First choice of winners' and show the key contribution that modern plastics have made to world-class sport. Space Day will take place on 25 October and ESA will introduce visitors to the role of plastics in space and illustrate how sport benefits from new space materials.

Space technology in sport

Last month’s Paralympic Games in Athens was a good illustration of the potential and advantages of space plastics on Earth. Leading German athlete Wojtek Czyz, wearing an artificial leg improved through space composite materials, won three gold medals and set two new world records. Czyz also undertook a 10-week training session using special equipment developed to train astronauts on board the International Space Station.

"The success of Wojtek Czyz last month in Athens has increased attention on disabled athletes and shown what they can achieve," says Brisson. "It has also illustrated how innovative technologies, in this case from space programmes, can support the objective of improving the quality of life of disabled people in our society. In ESA we have developed a wealth of advanced technologies, some ready, others that need adapting, that could provide novel solutions."

Athletes can benefit from another useful transfer of a pioneering technology, first introduced for damping fragile satellite structures during launch. Magneto-rheological fluids are being used to limit stress on the human body and its articulation system by introducing them as a ‘damping mechanism’ into shoes.

Skiers too benefit - ski maker Rossignol has developed a new ski for speed skiing that uses a stabilisation mechanism developed for space. The heart of the system is an amplified piezo-actuator originally researched and developed for ESA and the French Space Agency CNES, and used on the MIDAS instrument aboard ESA’s Rosetta comet chaser.

Space technology is also used in Formula 1. The McLaren racing team uses a cooling system developed for astronauts' suits to keep its mechanics cool. Plastic tubes distributed throughout the suit transport the heat to an internal cooling circuit controlled by a mini refrigerator.

ESA's TTP makes space technologies available for licensing or further development to stimulate the spin-off of space technology and to benefit life on Earth. At the K2004 International Fair visitors will be able to learn more about the uses of space technology on Earth and discuss with the ESA team how space technology can be made available through the TTP and its network of technology brokers in Europe and Canada.

For more information, please contact:

Fritz Gampe
Technology Transfer and Promotion Office (EUI-PP)
European Space Agency - ESTEC
Keplerlaan 1, P.O. BOX 299, 2200 AG, Noordwijk
The Netherlands
Office: +31 (0) 71 565 54636
Fax: +31 (0) 71 565 66 35
Email: Fritz.Gampe@esa.int

25 October: ESA - your winning partner in Space

Space Day programme:

10:15-10:45	The International Space Station (ISS):
	Virtual show on 'How plastics benefit the ISS'
	Dieter Isakeit, ESA, Manager of the ERASMUS User Center and Communication Office, will present the latest developments in conjunction with the ISS.
11:00-11:30	Winning partner for innovation:
	Space Technology Transfer and Sport
	Fritz Gampe, ESA, Senior Technology Transfer Officer, will explain various Technology Transfer activities as well as the set-up of the ESA Technology Transfer and Promotion Programme.
12:00-12:30	The International Space Station (ISS):
	Virtual show on "How plastics benefit the ISS"
	(repeated show)
12:30-12:50	Plastics in Space and on Earth:
	what the ISS and sport clothing have in common
	Michael Wahl, W.L. Gore & Associates GmbH, Coordination and Sales, will speak about how plastics material has impacted the market of sport clothing.
13:00-13:20	How to do business with ESA
	Maurizio Belingheri, ESA, Head of Commercialization Division, ISS Operations Department, will explain the basic approach to participating in the commercial exploitation of the ISS in the ESA context.
15:00-15:45	The challenge in Space, professional astronauts and their training
	Prof. Ernst Messerschmid, former German astronaut on Challenger in 1985 with the German Spacelab Mission D1, now Head of the European Astronaut Centre of ESA in Cologne-Porz, will give an introduction about the ESA contributions to the International Space Station (ISS) programme. He will explain how the ISS is used for science and technology development in general and the development and demonstrations of new smart materials in particular.
16:00 -16:45	The system approach:
	knowledge exchange, the key for innovation
	Speakers F. Gampe (ESA), MST Aerospace GmbH (ESA technology broker in Germany), Isatec (German industry), Dr. Schneider (German Sport University) and Dr. Zange (DLR) will talk about the special aspects of the ‘system approach’ used in space and how it may be related to innovations, in particular about the activities for the Paralympics 2004 with athlete Wojtek Czyz.